50 Chemical Reactions Entries
by Aya-kun Rose
Summary: My contributions to the LJ community, 50 Chemical Reactions. I've claimed the pairing RoyHughes or HughesRoy, so that's what you'll find in here, titled after different things related to chemistry. Check each chapter for the particular rating.
1. 3 Indivisible

**Rating**: PG-13

**Theme**: #3 Indivisible

* * *

At age five they were already best friends. In the following years they started school at the same time, shared all the same teachers, and played on the same sports teams. Adults used to laugh at the unlikely pair: one boy lanky, bright and exuberant, the other stockier and darkly intense. But they refused to be apart from each other, even when the Hughes family moved across town in their last year of high school.

Not even Roy's obsession with alchemy stood between them, and they entered the academy together the next year. Their curriculum differed; one an alchemist, the other a soldier. But that meant absolutely nothing when they came home late in the afternoon, too bored with homework and too interested in each other. It was as roommates, finally out in the world on their own, that they transcended simple "friendship" to become truly "indivisible." It was then that they whispered promises about forever under the protective cover of night.


	2. 26 Chain Reaction

**Rating**: PG-13

**Theme**: #26 Chain Reaction

* * *

There are two things that are glaringly obvious about Maes Hughes.

Fact One: he is not a man characterized by self-control. Everyone, of course, knows this from the very first time they see him and the hundreds of snapshots shoved in their faces. The only reason he is able to keep his job is because he doesn't find the nation's most highly classified information any fun to share with strangers on the street.

Fact Two: he is above all a family man. Everyone, of course, knows this from the very first time they see him and the hundreds of snapshots shoved in their faces. There's no denying it: there's pictures, there's evidence.

Sometimes, Maes Hughes finds his lack of self-control getting him into illogical situations.

Like now, when it's dark and he knows that he and Roy are the only people left in the office—no, in the _building_—and he can feel that impulse burning through him. It starts, and he can't stop it, and things just start happening, snowballing out of control. Little things at first, like a bony hand laid amiably on his friend's shoulder. Soon, things like ruffling the dark hair and placing lips on pale skin. Eventually, like dominoes, the little acts speed along and overlap, and Hughes has Roy pinned to the wall, tongue in his mouth and hands sneaking under his blue uniform.

And even though the other man's breath comes as heavily as his, he still has the strength, dignity, and _integrity_ to breathe one word—

"Gracia."

And that's it, the spell is broken. Hughes withdraws his hands, steps back. Both are flushed with lust and guilt. They don't look at each other, and there is nothing more to say. Maes gathers his things and goes home to his family.


	3. 34 Fission

**Rating**: PG-13

**Theme**: # 34 Fission / Fusion (Part 1)

* * *

The coffee was almost spilling out of the shallow cup, the way he was swirling it. Whoever served coffee in teacups, anyway? He decided that this café was far too full of itself, to charge so much for so little. He gave his drink one last swirl, and the brown liquid splashed over the rim, onto his hand, pooling in the saucer. He just stared at it rolling off and staining his hand, stared like he'd been staring at the cup for the last five minutes, before abruptly reaching for a lacey napkin. The coffee was only still warm, having cooled sometime during the conversation when he had forgotten it. 

Now he picked at the dainty piece of cloth in his hands. "So what you're saying," he started, not looking up, "is that you're breaking up with me."

Their small table was perched on the sidewalk outside the café. The man seated across it sighed loudly, rubbing his square chin. "And I was trying so hard not to put it that way."

"But that's what you mean. A couple can't suddenly devolve to 'just friends' without a break-up." His voice was soft, almost as if he didn't believe what his own body was saying.

"C'mon, Roy, we were friends before we started sleeping together, and we're still friends now, and there's no reason why we can't be friends in the future."

Roy shot a glare across the table, something weakly defiant although slightly hurt and confused. "There's no reason we can't be sleeping together in the future, either." He was staring back at the napkin before he even finished speaking.

There was no immediate response, and Roy knew that something deeper and more personal was coming. He looked up almost involuntarily, subconsciously needing to see his lover's face. Those golden eyes were softly sad, the lines of his mouth apologetic. "As much as I've loved being with you all this time, I've started to see that it's not how it can be forever. I'm sure some part of you understands that."

Some part of him did, but he decided to ignore the opinions of that part as much as possible. He tossed the napkin unhappily onto the table and stared out at the street. "But friends will go on forever?"

"Yes! Haven't you been listening at all?" Hughes leaned back, nearly knocking over the chair that was too delicate for his long frame. "I'm not saying I hate you and never want to see you again, I just think it's a good time for us to move on to different things."

Roy's brow furrowed. He reached blindly for his absurd cup of coffee and lifted it into the air before setting it back down. "What kind of different things are you thinking of that require us to be friends and nothing more?" A hard knot tightened in his heart, a fear of knowledge he already had but dreaded to hear spoken.

The chair creaked as the other man sat forward, hunching over with his elbows resting loosely on his knees, and looked out to watch the pedestrians pass by only feet away. "We're rising quickly through the ranks, we can't stay unnoticed for long."

"Since when do you care about what other people think about us? Weren't you the one to convince me that I shouldn't be ashamed for loving you?" _Weren't you the one that chose this frilly café and the table out on the avenue for all the world to hear this conversation if it wanted?_ followed in his mind, but he kept it to himself. He was irritated, but he figured irritating Maes in return wasn't the best way to keep him.

Hughes ducked his head for a moment before continuing. "I mean, soon the higher-ups will take an interest in one of us, or we'll earn names for ourselves, and people will start prying into our lives. I'm worried about our careers as well as our reputations. The military doesn't want to show off exemplary officers and have to admit that they're defective—"

"You don't honestly think that about us!" That was going too far, to demean the _both_ of them with the world's irrationality—

"Of course not!" Hughes snapped back. "But that doesn't stop the world from thinking that about us. You know as well as I that we're members of a minority. A taboo, improper, secret minority."

An awkward pause. Neither looked at the other, instead gazing out over the oblivious street. "I don't completely buy that reason, but I trust you have others." Roy's hand found its way back to the cup, and he began to worry the tiny handle with his thumb.

"Just one other that makes any difference." He paused. "Roy, you know that…." He stopped altogether.

"What?" Roy asked, feeling that knot pull breathlessly tight. He pulled his gaze back from the street, to see Hughes with his head down, seemingly staring at the ground far below his knees.

"You know that I've always wanted a family." It was said at a normal volume, but still, it was so soft Roy had trouble hearing it. The sounds of the street tumbled over their silence as Hughes looked away, then up, eyes seeking out Roy's.

He couldn't deny that look. With a shaky hand, Roy fumbled for the coffee, downing it to wet his suddenly dry mouth. It was tasteless. "Alright," he said hoarsely. He cleared his throat, started again. "Alright. If you don't want me—"

"Roy."

He shook his head to keep him from saying more. "If you don't want me, I can't make you stay. If you want to try friends…." Hands clenched on the table, he rose unsteadily. Down, he was staring down into the cup again. With effort, he lifted his head, bringing himself face to face with the angles and lines that was a worried Maes Hughes. Quickly, silently, he swept his eyes over that face, memorizing it as if for the last time. Then, with no regrets, he leaned in for a feather-light brush of lips on lips.

_Good bye_, it said. _I'm so sorry_, it said.


	4. 7 Absolute Zero

**Rating: **PG-13

**Theme: **# 7 Absolute Zero

* * *

Maes couldn't take his eyes off the other man, not for all the world. He could get away with it because Roy was occupied at the stove, and there was no one else in the small apartment who could catch him staring. Roy just looked so peaceful and elegant and downright handsome, even if he was only stirring up lunch. 

He was like a perfect piece of art, set there from on high for all to admire. The one thing in the room your eyes were drawn to every time you entered. The most expensive item in the collection, with its multitudinous warnings of "look but absolutely do not touch."

Maes wasn't only glad to have Roy as a friend, he was constantly, gleefully ecstatic for it. They were best friends to the end, and he knew he could always count on that, but it hurt him, too, that he could never have more. It hurt that he had to be so deeply in love with Roy. Love was supposed to be a happy thing, but whenever he thought of it, it made his breath sharp and his chest tight.

He wanted more than all the world to reach out past that protective display case and pull the other man close. And he was ashamed for not being content with what he had.

Because when Roy turned his way with a smile, just a glance to see that his guest was still alive, he was looking at a man who was his friend. Maes had to hide his worshipful stare with a goofy grin. He wouldn't let Roy catch him behaving any other way than just as a friend. Because his chance of having anything more was absolute zero.


	5. 39 Polarity

**Rating:** PG-13

**Theme:** # 39 Polarity

* * *

"You're gay," Roy Mustang slurred with a sleepy grin at the man he had just woken up beside. The sun was coming in through the shades, but it wasn't warm enough yet to prevent him from wiggling closer to the heat of the other man.

Maes Hughes adjusted accordingly so that the alchemist could settle comfortably against him. "What are you talking about, I could get any woman I wanted." One arm he stuffed under the pillow, the other he wrapped around Roy.

Who snorted into Maes' chest. "I'd like to see you try."

"No you wouldn't. You wouldn't want to see me torn apart by the mob of females brutally fighting to the death for my attention," Maes said with an air of fake longing. He looked over, grinning.

Roy glanced up, meeting the grin with a skeptical smile. "You? Mob of females? Never."

"You're just jealous of my success," he pouted, delivering a kiss to Roy's forehead.

Roy's eyes slipped shut. "Oh, definitely. Absolutely. You know how I can't stand to have anyone more successful than me." His arm he had draped over Maes tightened, pulling him as close as he could get.

"I bet I could get a wife before you." He frowned as Roy started to laugh quietly. "What?" he asked quizzically.

"I'm just tickled by the image of you married. Probably with a pack of kids running around wild, too." Roy cracked his eyes open, humor glinting from the blackness.

"I could do it! Don't doubt me!" He drummed his fingers on Roy's side.

Roy shifted, moving his weight onto his arms as he leaned over Maes. "You're forgetting one thing, though," he said in that low drawl.

Maes looked up at him. "What?" he asked again, this time matching Roy's tone.

Roy shifted again, bringing a hand up to capture the other man's strong chin in his pale fingers. Then he kissed him. "You're gay," he breathed the reminder as he pulled away.

Mae's gold eyes gleamed for a moment before he was pressing the alchemist down against the bed. "I don't think, then, that you should be complaining."


End file.
